Mercedes Benz has become the first manufacturer to win two top
What Car? Awards with diesel-powered cars. Both the Best Luxury
Car Award and Best Executive Car Award were bestowed upon refined
CDI models.

Scooping the Best Luxury Car category for an incredible fifth year running was the S-Class Saloon, with the S 320 CDI model repeating last year's success as the first diesel car to win the category. In 2000, the S 430 won, and in 1999 and 1998 the petrol S 320 succeeded.

Rob Aherne, What Car?'s Editor said: "What a good thing the S320 CDI is. It dots every i and crosses every t of our luxury brief, and then goes further by providing excellent fuel economy and low carbon dioxide emissions."

"Comfort was always second to none in the S320 [CDI], and a few tweaks have made the car's air-sprung suspension even smoother, while also making the Mercedes more lithe through corners. For such a large, luxurious car, it can be hustled with indecent haste and still feel every inch the aristocrat. The revised car is also more refined; the only time you can tell there's a diesel under the bonnet is when the engine is started from cold."

"Few cars this size can claim to be a driver's delight as well as a luxury limousine, but the S 320 CDI is."

Revised in October 2002 and now including a new, more powerful and economical 3.2 litre in-line six-cylinder engine, common-rail direct injection technology is at the heart of a range that has pioneering safety systems too. Pre-Safe is another Mercedes Benz first - it actually reacts to an impact before it happens.